22 June 2017

SEOUL, June 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea voiced strong protests Wednesday against Japan's latest claims to its easternmost islets of Dokdo in an education manual.

The foreign ministry also said that it called in Katsuro Kitagawa, a minister for political affairs at the Japanese embassy, to lodge complaints about what it sees as "repeated" and "unjustified" territorial claims.

"We strongly protest Japan's repeated and unjustified claims to our own territory, Dokdo, and demand its immediate withdrawal," the ministry said in a statement issued in the name of its spokesman.

"The government once again makes it clear that it will sternly deal with any provocation against Dokdo, which is our territory historically, geographically and by international law," it added.

Japan's education ministry earlier announced its education handbook for elementary and middle schools in which it calls for students to be taught that Dokdo is its territory.